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Learn more about Coalition 9

https://www.coalition9.com/

Podcast Transcription

Jasna Burza 0:00
Okay, Aaron, welcome to Business Spotlight.

Aaron Eggert 0:04
I’m so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much Jasna Oh, such

Jasna Burza 0:07
a pleasure. Like I was mentioning earlier, we have so many brilliant humans in common. And I love this conversation because I have been hosting uplevel to get our mastermind for the last seven years. And there here it is another group that are just so juicy and so beautiful that you have started that I want to talk about. So tell me a little bit about yourself. And then let’s, let’s talk a little bit about coalition nine.

Aaron Eggert 0:38
Yeah. So again, thank you so much for having me on your show here. i So my name is Aaron, I live on a hobby farm. So you can tell behind me, I’ve got you know, a picture of a cow and our farms called the Maple Farm and I we live about an hour west of the Twin Cities. And frankly, you know, I built my so I’m a college dropout. First of all, I think that’s a fascinating fun fact that, that some people may not be cool to share, but I love the fact that I didn’t I didn’t make it my full bore. I didn’t even make it a full one.

Jasna Burza 1:09
I actually still making a big deal out of that. Oh, no.

Aaron Eggert 1:14
Right. I some people do, I guess maybe corporate I don’t care small business, typically they don’t care. So no. So you know, I started out in sales and did really well, selling some of them was commoditize things on the face of the earth, which is Office products and office furniture, got the ownership bug later or earlier in my 30s Spent my 30s as an owner of a local firm called eyespace. And my partners and I did a really good job of building a really great culture a really good, like good stable revenue model. It’s a really good community of people that we had working on our team. At the end of the day, it just wasn’t my jam, like I didn’t love being in commercial interiors, I kind of got burnt out a little bit. So it was time for doing something new. And come you know, a couple of years past that after I sold my shares to my partner, I started coalition nine. And, and literally, what three years later here, we sit with 170 members and 17 peer groups, and it’s just an amazing ride.

Jasna Burza 2:13
That’s amazing. So let’s talk about it. So what is coalition nine? And how does it work? Because I know that it’s juicy and exciting. And everyone wants to know what it is?

Aaron Eggert 2:23
Yeah. So you know, you alluded to that the mastermind that you’ve been a part of. And there’s a lot of other different peer group models. At the end of the day, the thing I really wanted to double down on was the term community. And so you know, our members, we welcome anybody at any level. And so I really wanted to build a community that is really highly diverse. And so typically, the peer group model is only for people that have you know, fancier titles like C suite, or president or owner or something like that. I think like, when I was in my 20s, if I had a, like a personal board of advisors, like a peer group of people that tell me all the things that I was working through and how to help me make connections and just continually learning where I would be, it would have been just so far expedited. And so I wanted to be able to create this for anybody at any level that wants to be a part of a community that aligns with our vision. And our vision is changing business nine leaders at a time. And changing business is a big term, but we want to align that with our key beliefs. And our number one key belief is every member lives and leads with character first. So can I swear on here? Oh, my Okay. All right. So we have a no, so we have a no asshole policy. So I swear all the time. So just want to throw that out there. So we have no asshole policy, right. And so we really want to build a good community of people first, that are all there to help each other kind of with a Go Giver mentality. And so I curate groups really, really focused on where they’re at in their trajectory. I really blend the four pillars of what I look at diversity, so diversity, diversity of gender identification, color of skin experience, and zip code. So everybody’s welcome. And we make these blended groups and it turns into people’s personal board of advisors. They spend a half day together once per month. Our facilitators are geniuses they are, they have psycho psychology backgrounds, their business coaches, some of them are life coaches, they’re there to just help guide the group kind of be the Sherpa of the tribe and and then all get to be in a space together where it’s really rooted in transparency, vulnerability and trust.

Jasna Burza 4:26
Oh, I absolutely love that. I mean, I knew they were going to jam because we share so many of these beliefs in the world that we live it we have to help one another and and when we come together we realize I mean, no man is an island we share we grow. It is these are so remarkable. So in coalition nine, E O E, how does it work? How do people join? Right? So join? Is it a program that they have to sign up for? Is it on a monthly basis? And then how many Is there a limit to how many people can join At any given time,

Aaron Eggert 5:01
so all good questions. So we again, number one is we want to have people that aligned with our key beliefs again, you know that that every member lives in leads with character for so good people only. And so what’s been really great about the way coalition nine has grown is that it’s been very organic by member referral. So I would say 90% of our members have come from the referral of another member, which is, you know, the testimonial and that has been huge. And then otherwise, there’s a little application process on our website, coalition nine.com. And at that point, then I like to get to know the person I like to understand, like, what drives them? What are they looking to get out of this experience. And really, at the end of the day, the thing that was kind of our secret sauce is, I do a really good job of finding the chemistry of people that are like minded, that are really going to jive together, they may have, they may have a financial background, they might have an operational background, or maybe a revenue background, it doesn’t matter. If I find the right chemistry of people. That’s where the magic starts to happen. And so again, like anybody’s welcome, we just need to find the right spot for him.

Jasna Burza 6:07
Oh, I love that. And then again, do they? Is it like a year long program? Or how does it work?

Aaron Eggert 6:13
I call it perpetual. So as long as people want to be a part of our you can’t grow a community in a year, right. And so we’re at, like I said, just under 170. Members, it’s taken us a few years to get here. Our goal is to get to a 400 members in the Twin Cities. And I’m I’m unapologetic in saying I want to cap it. So then what’s going to be great about that is that it will continue to be exclusive. But it’ll take that exclusivity to the next level to where it’s almost like you need to join the waiting list to be a part of a group. And I really, I but I don’t want anybody to leave. So I want members to be members for years, and just have this tight community of people all kind of forging forward together to make a positive impact on our greater community.

Jasna Burza 6:52
Oh, I love that. That is just so so so beautiful. And I’ve heard people really have great experience with connecting with others and great getting great feedback and all those wonderful things. Aaron, you are quite an I actually love the background that you gave like I live in a hobby farm. I didn’t go to college. I learned the best innovators. You’re also quite an entrepreneur besides coalition nine, you also have a very interesting podcast and you host Yeah, so

Aaron Eggert 7:20
that was a you know, I think podcasts you have to figure out, you know, what’s your, your medium of how you ended this, like, like you’re doing this and you’re doing such a good job of taking someone like me who we’ve never met in person, and we’ve met virtually and you’re, you’re doing something so nice and amplifying me Well, I wanted to do that same thing for our members. So I like to go really deep and tell their story and everyone regardless if they’re an entrepreneur, or if they’re a leader, they’ve got an interesting story to have that has gotten them to where they are. There’s there’s probably a balance of like nature versus nurture, like, how did they get to where you know, that mindset of where they are? And then what was that paradigm shifting moment to where they realize I don’t want to work for anybody ever again, or I’m taking the leap to go into leadership within this corporate facility or whatever it is. So I like to spend the time amplifying members that we have that don’t typically get to get amplified and tell their story to all the people that we have listening to our podcasts. So it’s called The Power of nine podcast out every couple of weeks. I’m the one that hosts it and I just have a blast with it.

Jasna Burza 8:19
I love it. Of course you’re doing you seem to have a blast with everything you do. Yeah,

Aaron Eggert 8:24
I do. Yeah. I imagine Alaska energy here. He has no,

Jasna Burza 8:29
he said he’s gonna have a blast editing this out because there’s so much fire here. Tell me a little bit about, you know, what are you noticing post pandemic, the world, the business has changed. People have changed, right? The conversations that I’m in right now behind closed doors are radically different. They’re not focused on growth. And you know, they are but in a very different way. People are spending significantly more time focusing on reset and pause and self care. What are you hearing?

Aaron Eggert 9:00
Yeah, same thing. You know, I think the thing that we that I love about coalition nine is that you know, in the in though I’m for those that are only listening to this, I’m using this big circle. So it’s the wheel of life, right. And so that thing constantly spins inside that is a cog that is business. That’s just one small cog. And so coalition nine kind of sits in between both of those cogs of business in life, in every pandemic changed everything. And so now people are more I feel are more willing to have truly transparent conversations. They need to find a safe space where they can be vulnerable. And that’s where I think that again, that was about Catalyst for coalition nine was the pandemic because people were in such a weird isolated space that they needed to find their tribe of people that they could just be real with.

Jasna Burza 9:49
I love it and we need them more than ever. Yeah, I mean,

Aaron Eggert 9:53
there’s there’s all these different communities though, too, right? Cult coalition, it is just a community but uh, Do you need to find your other communities, right? And so whether they be faith based or whether they be based on something that you you believe in otherwise, like, there’s all these other communities, these all can help these people through certain things, I need to have my communities, you need to have your communities, I need to be able to get some things off my chest and talk through some things. Everybody needs to have multiples of these. So we read that.

Jasna Burza 10:22
Absolutely. And in more than ever, I think we’re okay, there was, for me, at least there was a shift among my peers, where we were just going to trying to all like, look how great we are right before 2020. And now it’s like, you know, there’s a lot more real, like, we’ve been only wanting to get more real away from social media. And now it’s not even, you know, the this this all as the more real, it’s not a catchy phrase, we’re actually genuinely deciding to engage in life and business in a very different in a very different way.

Aaron Eggert 10:59
Yeah, and I think, so you had one of your one of your guests, I think it was April Seifer. You’re on her podcast. And so you two know each other. And so April told me about kind of the theory around how the neurons in your brain fire and everything changed in that because we were so isolated. And now people want more intimate relationships with smaller groups, you can go and like, obviously, I have a lot of energy, I can go and go to, you know, a 200 person event, and I’m going to be fine. But I’ll tell you something, I am freaking exhausted when I’m done where prior to the pandemic, I could do that stuff all day long. I could do, you know, three coffees a lunch, two more coffees a happy hour, get home at seven o’clock. And that was just a normal day that I’m doing half days now. And you know, my brain slash body can’t handle it the way that it used to?

Jasna Burza 11:49
Isn’t that amazing? Huge, huge kudos O’Hara, high five for April. She’s such a brilliant, brilliant, insightful person at all things that she teaches us the psychology of the mind. She just can’t say enough about her for

Aaron Eggert 12:05
sure. Yeah, Han.

Jasna Burza 12:07
So I think that if you’re really, I think you’re confirming what all of us are hearing right now is that our adrenals are an overload. And there is a conscious decision to be like I can be in the business in in the world of my work, and I can show up, but not on the terms like I used to not at the cost of burnout, not at the cost of having a divorce, not at the cost of having a mental breakdown. So I think that we’re a lot more stringent and disciplined about our own space and boundaries. And I say thank you, 2020. for that.

Aaron Eggert 12:46
I do and you know, I think a big conversation and many of our groups of business owners and entrepreneurs is that, you know, that war for talent. And I think that’s a big contributor to that because people are, they realize that they they will they hold the cards for their own lives, and they get to make the choice. And prior to the pandemic, you know, businesses typically held the cards well, now that that’s a little bit more balanced out. And I think now it’s, it’s a little bit more of everyone needs to approach their if they’re, if they work for somebody, they own their own business of life, and they are in a negotiation for how much am I willing to give my time for money? And what am I going to sacrifice that time. So that and all of that is this huge flywheel that we’re experiencing now with both just talent and then how people are experiencing how they want to just live their lives.

Jasna Burza 13:35
I love that Aaron, this is such a fascinating conversation. I feel like you and I could die for hours, but we’re gonna protect the time folks, if you’re listening to this, here is a man who literally decided to change its his own community through his energy by starting something very creative. So if people are listening to this, they should just go to coalition nine.com. And there’s a they can require just kind of an informational conversation with you or they can actually apply to become a member.

Aaron Eggert 14:05
And I’ll tell you something, we like I said we have 170 members and we are looking to grow. But another great thing that I want to say is that even if someone wants to be connected to somebody in the in, in our community and just know that they’re a good person and maybe they have something that they’ve been looking for for a service. So you know, maybe a really good CPA or an attorney or, or a marketing professional or anything right. I’d love to help connect one of our members to them if they have a service that they need.

Jasna Burza 14:31
You are a gift that keeps on giving. I’m so glad we had this conversation. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me in this Business Spotlight is definitely one of my greatest joys is to feature people like yourself who are doing signing class such amazing work in our community. And I’m just such I’m onboard 100%

Aaron Eggert 14:53
and allow thank you so much. I love what you’re doing here. I’ve watched so many of these and I’ve loved them. You do an amazing job. That’s an amplifying people so keep doing what you’re doing and with my efforts and your efforts and the efforts of the other people that are out there doing good things, we can make some change. Heck yes.

Jasna Burza 15:08
Thank you so much everyone, please make sure you go to coalition nine. We’re going to link that above below on the side and everywhere you consume this, either live on Facebook or later on. Thank you so much, Erin. Have a great day.

Aaron Eggert 15:22
You too Jasna bye bye